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While Tunisia’s P.M. has named the two suspected gunmen killed in the Bardo Museum attack, any possible terror group link remains unknown.
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A Tunisian woman holds a placard reading in French “Tunisia will remain standing” as she takes part in a protest on March 18, 2015 a few hours after an attack on the National Bardo Museum.(Photo: Sofiene Hamadaoui, AFP/Getty Images)

Nine people have been arrested in connection with a shooting attack on a museum in Tunisia that left 23 people dead, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi’s office announced Thursday.

Four of the suspects were directly connected with the attack at the National Bardo Museum on Wednesday, Essebsi said in a statement. Five suspects are accused of having ties to the terrorist cell involved in the tragedy.

The president’s office said the army will be deployed to protect large cities, Reuters reported.

The arrests came after Tunisia’s prime minister said one of the gunmen who stormed the museum was known to intelligence services.

Habib Essid said in an interview with French radio station RTL that the North African nation is working with other countries to find out more more about the attackers, the Associated Press reported. Two gunmen, identified as Yassine Laabidi and Hatem Khachnaoui, were killed when authorities swept in and freed the hostages.

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Gunmen opened fire Wednesday at a museum in Tunisia’s capital, killing at least eight people, including seven foreign tourists and wounding six. A later raid by security forces left two gunmen and one officer dead but ended the standoff. (March 18)AP

Essid said Laabidi was flagged to intelligence, although not for “anything special.” No formal links to any particular terror group have been established, the AP said.

Health Minister Said Aidi said Thursday that the death toll rose to 23 people, including 18 foreign tourists and the two gunmen, and almost 50 people were wounded. Five Tunisians were killed, including the attackers. Aidi said all the injuries were from bullet wounds, the AP reported.

The National Bardo Museum is a popular tourist attraction in the capital Tunis, and a manhunt was underway for two or three accomplices after the gunmen were killed.

Two Spanish tourists and a Tunisian museum worker spent the night hiding in the building before being found by security forces, according to media reports Thursday.The employee hid the man and woman in an office during the four-hour siege, the AFP news agency reported. A civil protection official who was outside the museum told the agency that the three were taken to a hospital for medical checks.

Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi on Thursday said the country is in a “war with terror.” In comments broadcast on national TV, he said: “These monstrous minorities do not frighten us. We will resist them until the deepest end without mercy. Democracy will win and it will survive.”

Two of the cruise ships whose passengers were among the victims sailed out of the port of Tunis early on Thursday. MSC Cruises said nine passengers from the Splendida were killed, 12 injured and six unaccounted-for, according to the AP. The Costa Fascinosa said 13 passengers had not returned on board when the ship left the port, the news agency reported.

Foreign tourists from countries including Japan, Italy, Britain, Australia, Poland and France were killed, along with Tunisian nationals. The wounded include tourists from Italy, France, Japan, South Africa, Poland, and Russia, authorities said.

Speaking to Japanese public broadcaster NHK over the phone from a hospital in Tunisia, Japanese tourist Noriko Yuki, 35, said she was on the second floor of the museum when a gunman dressed in black opened fire from a doorway. She also heard an explosion, she said.

The broadcaster reported that Yuki, who sustained wounds to her back and hands, said her 68-year-old mother was also injured and underwent surgery at a Tunisian hospital.

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, who is visiting Tokyo to promote the education of girls in developing countries, said she and President Obama wanted to “express our condolences over the horrific event yesterday in Tunisia.

She added: “Our hearts go out to the loved ones of those who were lost here in Japan and around the world. They are very much in our thoughts and prayers today.”

Tunisia, the northernmost African nation, has struggled with militants since a revolution ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. Since then, there have been assassinations of liberal, secular politicians and attacks on tourist haunts.